How to Write Your Novel's First Page

hi guys it's Ellen Rock freelance editor I know I haven't made a video in a long time I've been really busy but you guys have sent me a lot of really great requests and I really do want to get to all of them it's just going to take me a while because I have a lot on my plate right now I've gotten comments and emails from a lot of people saying that they missed the novel boot camp event that I held on my blog and I guess I didn't really do a great job promoting it part of it was I wasn't sure how big it would get and I didn't want things get too out of hand because this is the first year that I've done it but it turned out really well there was a lot of participation probably about as much as I could handle this year I am hoping to make it bigger next year I'm not exactly sure how I will execute it but I'll make sure to let everybody know in advance and make sure that it's really clear when it's happening and how you can participate so to make up for the fact that a lot of people missed the boot camp on my blog I do have a page that you can go to to see it all but I think what I'm going to do is just convert all of those two videos so that you guys don't have to go look for the information on my blog and also because I know a lot of people don't have a lot of time and maybe it's easier to watch a video than it is to read a long blog post so the first thing I covered during novel boot camp was how to write a great first page I talked about it in terms of the first page promise because really the first page is the promise of the potential of your book it's the promise of the tone and the genre and the type of story that you're going to be telling I compare this the first page to an audition if you're an actor and you're going out for a role you really have to demonstrate your ability to the casting director in a very short period of time very quickly and they're going to be making a very fast decision about whether they like you and whether you suit the role that they're looking to cast how this applies your first page is that when you're looking to impress a publisher the first page is really what's going to tell the agent that they either really like this book that it really suits what they're interested in or it's going to tell them you know this isn't really my thing so if we go along with this analogy where the first page is your audition then when you have a partial or full manuscript requested by an agent or an editor that's like your callback now if you're an actor and you go to a callback and how you perform is very very different from how you performed an audition the casting director might get a little bit confused they might get frustrated and more likely than not they'll be disappointed because they liked what you did at the audition they called you back to see more of what they already saw if your novel does not deliver what the first page promises you're in trouble that's because the people who loved your first page will be disappointed when they find out that that's not really what your book is about and people who would have loved your book won't necessarily read it if the first page is an inaccurate representation of what the book is like this means that the wrong people will read your book and this will apply no matter if you're self-publishing or you're sending to agents or you're sending to editors you want the right people to read your book you want the people who read your book to be the people who will like it you love the genre like the tone or interested in the plot so it's very important that the first page accurately reflects the book as a whole so this really starts with the tone and the tone is sort of the atmosphere of your novel it's the sense that it creates in the reader you know is it mysterious is it scary is it exciting is it romantic you obviously can't go a hundred percent to show this tone right off the bat but at the very least you can allude to the tone based on your word choices and sort of the vibe that you give off with your first page a lot of amateur writers set the wrong tone there are three main reasons why this happens the first is that the writer starts at the beginning and writes to the end and they don't really realize what the novel is about until maybe halfway through or maybe even to the very end but after they're done they don't go back and change the book they leave the original opening that really doesn't suit the book the second reason is that the writer is worried that the logical place to start their book isn't interesting or exciting enough so they'll try to put in a scene before the logical opening that maybe is a little more exciting a little more adventurous but a lot of the time these scenes feel tacked on sometimes they're prologue a lot of the times with my clients I'll see things like this that even after you get all the way through the book you can go back and read the beginning the very first scene whether it's the first chapter or the prologue and it doesn't really make sense it doesn't really fit with the book it's not even really clear why it was included and this is usually because the writer is just afraid that where they're starting the book is not interesting enough the third reason that the first page might not set the right tone is if you're too busy cramming information in to really let the reader breathe and experience the world and the characters and really come to understand what the book is about and what it's going to be like so the first page needing to convey the tone of the book and really give readers a good idea what to expect that's the main reason why you'll see a lot of writing advice to not start with dreams prologue flashbacks things like that in the beginning of your novel it's not so much that this is inherently bad all over the time it's just that you don't want to use these things as a device to make your novel see more interesting if it doesn't actually convey anything about the book sometimes this is just sort of lazy writing it's easier to write an interesting flashback or dream or prologue than it is to write a really interesting first chapter in first chapters take a lot of work you should expect to rewrite it probably the most of anything in the entire book because it's really hard to set that tone right from the beginning but tacking on an extra part in the beginning to try to make it seem more interesting really isn't going to work because readers are going to get to the part that you're trying to hide the part that's not really so exciting so it's not ultimately going to benefit you because more likely than not it will just create a greater sense of disappointment so now we've talked about the importance of setting the right tone and atmosphere in the first page of your novel let's talk about how you can create a promise that you can keep how you can write a great first page the first step is to identify the tone of your novel is it creepy heartwarming funny romantic whatever it is make sure that you're clear on what kind of tone you want to convey what you want to make the reader feel when they start reading your book but don't go overboard you don't want the first thing that your reader reads to be the most exciting thing that happens in the whole book or the scariest thing that happens in the whole book you to be able to build an intensity the easiest way to accomplish this is to start with a sort of micro version of what the larger plot is going to be about for example if your novel about overthrowing an oppressive government you could start by showing the main character standing up to an oppressive postal worker or if your novel is about a boy learning to be himself you could show him covering up his true feelings who trying to get away from a bully these things demonstrate right away to the reader what the point of the book is going to be what the book is about in a larger sense than just what the plot is about because you won't quite yet be revealing what the whole plot is about in both of these examples the writer would have no problem setting a clear tone but also building in intensity over time before you start rewriting your first page or working on revisions remember that writing a great first page means writing the best overall representation of your novel it doesn't mean writing an exciting car chase or something totally outrageous and gripping a hook can be valuable and important but don't force one if your story doesn't have one on its own so I hope this video helped you get a better idea of how you can write a great first page that best represents your book and gives you the best possible chance at attracting the right readers and repelling the ones that really don't save your book anyway I'm not exactly sure when I'll be able to upload the next video I'll try to make it not too long from now but my schedule is kind of unpredictable because I have some things up in the air but I really appreciate the views in the shares they really mean a lot and it's great to have so many awesome writers watching my videos I am a little more active on Twitter so if you want to follow me there I'll put the link in the description and I will be back hopefully soon with another video

Channel: Ellen Brock

Views: 98,848

Rating: 4.9529738 out of 5

Keywords: writing, writer, editing, editor, novel, advice, first, page, opening

Id: Idb6OIJ1Pv4

Length: 8min 19sec (499 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 16 2014